Though more than half a century has elapsed, some Chinese people still cherish the memory of an American air fleet and its voluntary pilots who supported China's fight against Japanese invaders during World War II.
An e-mail sent recently from a small town in east China in search of one of those pilots highlights the friendship between the Chinese and American peoples and an international event of human significance.
Officially the 14th Aviation Group of the United States, the pilots were known as the Flying Tigers in China during World War II. Group commander C. L. Chennault and his men transported arms and other materials and joined in air raids to help China fight Japanese invaders. Many pilots were killed during the war, but some survived.
Horold B. Tollet was one of the lucky survivors. He was saved by a unit of China's resistance troops and residents at Siming Mountain, in east China's Zhejiang Province, in early 1945 when his plane crashed and he baled out in an area near Shanghai.
Seriously wounded, the 22-year-old was taken to the Siming Mountain anti-Japanese base to be cared for by local Chinese soldiers and residents.
According to the curator of a local museum on the history of the base, Tollet stayed at Siming Mountain from Jan. 21 to April 18, 1945, until he recovered and returned to his fleet. During the three months, Tollet spent about 50 days at Liangnong Town in the mountainous region.
Even today six townspeople still clearly remember the American pilot. The group, who included a bride at that time and a 15-year-old boy, often recall how they nursed him, prepared delicious food for him and had fun with him 57 years ago.
Longing to get up-to-date news of their old friend, they have sent an e-mail in a bid to find the pilot.
(Xinhua News Agency October 20, 2002)
|
